Ten years on from the Marmot Review

In November 2008 Professor Sir Michael Marmot led a review exposing the stark health inequalities in England at the time.

The Fair Society Healthy Lives report demonstrated that health was strongly correlated with social and economic status. The lower this status was, the poorer a person’s health was likely to be.

Marking its anniversary, Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On shows how little has progressed on reducing inequality. It also gives an even stronger impetus to persist with work that shows how the upstream drivers of health inequality can be tackled.

We are identifying ways to do this, taking a long-term view on particularly complex urban health issues.

Listening to people

In our place, people develop their first long-term condition in their early thirties. And, followed by their second in their mid-forties. When the cards are stacked against you in many ways, the chances are you will spend more years in ill-health.

The first thing to do in learning how to address this is to listen to people. Our report with the Taskforce on Multiple Conditions, “Just one thing after another”: Living with multiple conditions demonstrates that ways to protect the health of people with long-term conditions are often hidden in plain sight. Simple changes can be found in people’s homes, money, work and neighbourhoods.

People from our place in south London are currently teaching us about the relationship between their money and health. And second, about the key moments that impact their journey into, and out of, ill-health.

Broadening our circle of partners

We have the privilege of working with partner organisations as diverse as the people within our boroughs. We have learnt that there are too few organisations that work to tackle wider determinants of health. We are actively broadening that circle.

We support community organisations, GPs and CEOs to contribute to healthy environments. To improve health, there isn’t a sector we don’t engage with, and we hope more partners will join us to think outside the box.

For example, we are convening employers in inner-city London to reflect on their role in promoting the health of their employees. And, how responsible supply chains and meaningful, flexible local jobs to the needs of people can improve health.